Matthew Hawtin

Category: Paintings

  • Dimensions Exhibition | London | 2019

    Dimensions Exhibition | London | 2019

    Dimensions is a multimedia exhibition celebrating the 25th anniversary of Richie Hawtin’s iconic F.U.S.E. albums. Plus 8 Records and The Vinyl Factory are pleased to release the re-mastered albums Dimension Intrusion and Train-Tracs alongside the yet unreleased album Computer Space. Originally recorded in 1993 it completes the extended range of Hawtin’s recording persona.

    The exhibition presents original artworks by the visual artist Matthew Hawtin and premiers Computer Space in an exclusive listening session prior to its official release. For the first time the visual and sonic works that mutually inspired the artists are merged to a cohesive experience for a public audience.

    In the formative years of the early 1990s Richie and his brother Matthew were still living at their parents’ house in Windsor, Canada and would frequently cross the border into Detroit together to immerse themselves in the developing underground Techno scene. The electrifying energy would leave a deep impression on both of them and fuelled their creativity. While Richie explored his creative vision through music, the fine art student Matthew found his expression through painting yet they would share ideas and inspiration – Richie’s album titles Dimension Intrusion and Computer Space were both derived from Matthew’s paintings and would lend as their cover artwork.

    Today the early F.U.S.E. recordings are as relevant as they were upon their initial release, when they shaped the emerging sound of Techno music. Since then Richie Hawtin has moved on to his Plastikman persona, evolving DJ shows and CLOSE live performances as well as developing music performance technologies, continuously pioneering and challenging himself and the genre of Techno. Matthew Hawtin continues to evolve his art into new areas of expression. He exhibits widely and works out of Windsor and Detroit, the place where it all began.

    F.U.S.E. Dimensions

  • White Noise | SB Contemporary | 2019

    White Noise

    SB Contemporary
    Windsor, Canada
    January 17 to March 9, 2019

    Music, or shall we say, sound, actually plays an important role in my work. Whenever I’m in the studio there is always something emanating from the speakers and I feel there is always a soundtrack being created with each new work or series. Although my work is technically silent, I like to imagine the possible sound(s) or maybe noise, coming from each individual painting.

    After the large-scale installation ‘Fallout’ shown at the Art Gallery of Windsor in 2016 I had been thinking more about the placement of works in a space. The nature of the frame’s shape allows the canvases to be rotated to different orientation, thus giving the work a sense of freedom in the placement. With this freedom there is a randomness of composition that can occur when a set of canvases are seemingly scattered on a wall. It’s in this randomness that relationships start to form and dialogues begin, between the paintings and the space.

    In the case of the new installation called ‘White Noise’ I had been thinking about ‘Fallout’ on a smaller scale and how the dialogue between the works and a space also suggests a type of visual ‘noise’. Something like the hum of a building, a city or a highway, this subtle difference between what is being heard as noise or sound. I thought about tiny bits of visual static, like those on a TV screen and how that sound (or noise) would interact with a given space on the subatomic level creating distortions and vibrations we would hear but not see. In ‘White Noise’ I wanted to represent the notion of these scattered fragments of sound frozen in space.

    Alongside the installation are selected drawings that serve as studies to explore different colours, textures and placements of possible paintings. The drawings are titled in the order they were produced with ‘AF’ referring to the shape of the canvas as the ‘abstract frame’. Drawing has always been a more immediate way for me to experiment and develop ideas and forms the backbone of my art practice as a way to push past creative blocks and keep the working evolving.

    Note: Images of the exhibition were taken during the day and at night. This was to try and capture the different surface hues that the iridescent paint conveys at different times of the day.

  • Torqued Series 2018

    Torqued Series 2018

    The Torqued Series started in 1998 with the introduction of the ‘Torqued Paintings’. This was an investigation into the basic principles of painting – line, shape, colour and form – through the use of custom-built stretcher frames that ‘torque’ the painting surface. In recent developments to this series the wooden frame has been constructed with no perpendicular sides to create a new and dynamic shape with resulting torqued surface. This abstract frame leads the painting series through explorations of colour, size and materials to continually push the work forward.

    This continued evolution of work bought about a new variant of the series in 2009. The ‘Torqued Panels’ emerged out of the desire to remove the physical structure of the paintings (i.e. the stretcher frame), and to focus more intently on only surface. Fiberglass panels and custom mounting brackets were chosen to achieve painted torqued surfaces in varying sizes, shapes and colours that seem to ‘float off the wall’, giving them a weightlessness and presence apart from conventional paintings.

    This lightness of form is also explored in corner pieces, a physical object that contours to the angled meeting point of a room creating it’s own ambiguous curved space. The corner piece inhabits an area of a room usually devoid of interference yet it’s through intervention that something new exists – a colourful but quiet entity cornered for consideration

    Although each series has it’s own technical demands, they all live in aesthetic parallel that blur the line between artistic disciplines. There is a determination to continually push the work forward through aesthetic variations, technical refinements and experimenting with new materials. Within this forward trajectory there is an overall vision to create art that is ‘other-worldly’ and in a sense, futuristic. A looking towards an aesthetic not yet seen or fully understood – a desire to go where no one has gone before.

  • Torqued Series 2017

    Torqued Series 2017

    The Torqued Series started in 1998 with the introduction of the ‘Torqued Paintings’. This was an investigation into the basic principles of painting – line, shape, colour and form – through the use of custom-built stretcher frames that ‘torque’ the painting surface. In recent developments to this series the wooden frame has been constructed with no perpendicular sides to create a new and dynamic shape with resulting torqued surface. This abstract frame leads the painting series through explorations of colour, size and materials to continually push the work forward.

    This continued evolution of work bought about a new variant of the series in 2009. The ‘Torqued Panels’ emerged out of the desire to remove the physical structure of the paintings (i.e. the stretcher frame), and to focus more intently on only surface. Fiberglass panels and custom mounting brackets were chosen to achieve painted torqued surfaces in varying sizes, shapes and colours that seem to ‘float off the wall’, giving them a weightlessness and presence apart from conventional paintings.

    This lightness of form is also explored in the new corner works, a piece in development for four years. It is a physical object that contours to the angled meeting point of a room creating it’s own ambiguous curved space. The corner piece inhabits an area of a room usually devoid of interference yet it’s through intervention that something new exists – a colourful but quiet entity cornered for consideration.

    Although each series has it’s own technical demands, they all live in aesthetic parallel that blur the line between artistic disciplines. There is a determination to continually push the work forward through aesthetic variations, technical refinements and experimenting with new materials. Within this forward trajectory there is an overall vision to create art that is ‘other-worldly’ and in a sense, futuristic. A looking towards an aesthetic not yet seen or fully understood – a desire to go where no one has gone before.

  • New Work | David Klein Gallery | 2017

    New Work

    David Klein Gallery
    Detroit, Michigan, USA
    Sept. 9 – Oct. 21, 2017

    David Klein Gallery, 1520 Washington Boulevard, Detroit, Michigan, is pleased to announce the opening of Matthew Hawtin, New Work, an exhibition of his shaped paintings on fiberglass and canvas as well as his new limited-edition silkscreens. A reception for the artist will take place on Saturday, September 9th, 6 – 8 pm.

    Matthew Hawtin, in his first solo show at David Klein Gallery, Detroit, continues his exploration of line, form and color with a new body of work produced on the occasion of this exhibition. Working with cast fiberglass panels and “torqued” canvases, Hawtin’s work sits within the historical canon of minimalist abstraction. His focus on hard-edge and color field painting is evident in the sculptural nature of the work and his precise, personal palette. In addition to the painting series, Hawtin is also showing a new form for corners. Produced in fiberglass and painted by hand, the corner piece is an object that contours to the angled meeting point of a room, creating its own ambiguous curved space while referencing the curves of the paintings. This new form occupies an area of a room usually devoid of interference yet it’s through intervention that something new exists – a quiet entity cornered for consideration.

    Hawtin introduced his ‘Torqued Paintings’ in 1998. Through the use of custom-built stretcher frames that ‘torque’ the painting surface he began an investigation into the basic principles of painting: line, shape, color and form. The continued evolution of the work brought about a new variant of the series in 2009. The ‘Torqued Panels’ emerged out of the desire to remove the physical structure of the paintings and to focus only on the surface. Fiberglass panels and custom mounting .brackets were chosen to achieve painted torqued surfaces in varying sizes, shapes and colors that seem to ‘float off the wall’, giving them a weightlessness and presence apart from conventional paintings.

    Matthew describes his process here: “Although each series has its own technical demands, they all live in aesthetic parallel that blurs the line between artistic disciplines. There is a determination to continually push the work forward through aesthetic variations, technical refinements and experimenting with new materials. Within this forward trajectory there is an overall vision to create art that is ‘other-worldly’ and in a sense, futuristic”.

    Hawtin was born in England and moved to Windsor, Canada in 1979. He has a BFA from York University in Toronto and an MA Art in Architecture from the University of East London, London, UK. His work has been shown in the United States, Canada, and in Europe.

    Metrotimes Article

  • Allsorts | Scott White Contemporary Art | 2017

    Allsorts

    Scott White Contemporary Art
    San Diego, CA, USA
    February 25 – April 21, 2017

    Allsorts is a selection of recent work by the artist, Matthew Hawtin. The name ‘Allsorts’ comes from the British candy of the same name, a mixture of liquorice sweets in varying bright colours, designs and textures. The exhibition contains examples of Matthew’s work across the Torqued Series and includes paintings on canvas, fiberglass panels and the new corner works. The show also features the first silkscreen print edition – a set of four prints that further explores the abstract frame of the ‘Torqued Paintings’ series. Although differing in materials, each series is interconnected through a similar visual dialogue, prescribing to a ‘less is more’ philosophy. The corner piece grew from the panels and the panels came from the paintings – a slow divergent evolution of ideas investigating line, shape, colour, and texture, while exploring new materials. The works sit within the historical canon of painterly abstraction, working along the boundaries of hardedge and colour-field painting and also minimalism. The sculptural nature of the works situates them across disciplines, blurring the line between painting and sculpture and also design and architecture. Matthew infuses the work with an indirect emotion and hopes the viewers can turn off to experience the works for more than a moment and stir up the veiled feelings of our daily lives. With each new work or series Matthew continually explores the nature of space, form and colour using the aesthetic language he has been developing and evolving over the past 20 years of art practice.

  • Transposing | AGW 2016

    Transposing

    Art Gallery of Windsor
    April 23 – June 5, 2016
    Curated by Srimoyee Mitra

    The Art Gallery of Windsor is proud to present a mid-career survey exhibition of Matthew Hawtin’s past, present and future work. Born in the UK and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Hawtin spent formative years as a teenager hopping across the river to Detroit with his brother, Richie Hawtin, where they would visit art exhibitions by day and DJ at underground parties by night. It was there that the influence of the industrial-style of Detroit techno music permeated his art practice. From an early age the Hawtin brothers worked together, influencing one another. For example, while Matthew focused on his visual practice, Richie, his brother, started his own record labels and composed electronic music. Soon Matthew’s artwork was featured on Plus 8 Records and Minus Records, respectively, a relationship that has grown as their practices evolved and the brothers matured.

    Matthew studied Fine Arts at York University, Toronto and received his Masters in the Art in Architecture program at the University of East London, UK. He was influenced early on by the abstract-expressionists and then became deeply influenced by the minimalist philosophy that emphasized the simplicity of form, colour, shape, size and textures. As he developed his repertoire, Matthew organically infused the spatial characteristic of early electronic music to the formalist aesthetic vocabulary of minimalism to arrive at the Torqued Painting series. These paintings lie at the intersection of sculpture, design and architecture. Their three-dimensionality encompasses a sense of movement, rhythm and energy – emerging out of the wall and immersing the viewer in their vibrant colours and unusual forms.

    Over the last decade, Matthew has experimented with completely removing the physical frame of the work and leaving only a painted surface, like a floating futuristic plane devoid of gravity. For Matthew Hawtin: Transposing, he will premiere a major site-specific installation composed of multiple torqued paintings created in response to the architecture of the Gallery space. These will be presented in conjunction with his early works on canvas and cover art for record label releases, to new and recent paintings on canvas and fiberglass. Altogether, the exhibition promises to take viewers on a journey that tells the story of the formation of a truly local artist whose varied work has resonated with a global audience.

  • Torqued Series 2016

    Torqued Series 2016

    The Torqued Series started in 1998 with the introduction of the ‘Torqued Paintings’. This was an investigation into the basic principles of painting – line, shape, colour and form – through the use of custom-built stretcher frames that ‘torque’ the painting surface. In recent developments to this series the wooden frame has been constructed with no perpendicular sides to create a new and dynamic shape with resulting torqued surface. This abstract frame leads the painting series through explorations of colour, size and materials to continually push the work forward.

    This continued evolution of work bought about a new variant of the series in 2009. The ‘Torqued Panels’ emerged out of the desire to remove the physical structure of the paintings (i.e. the stretcher frame), and to focus more intently on only surface. Fiberglass panels and custom mounting brackets were chosen to achieve painted torqued surfaces in varying sizes, shapes and colours that seem to ‘float off the wall’, giving them a weightlessness and presence apart from conventional paintings.

    This lightness of form is also explored in the new corner works, a piece in development for the past 4 years. It is a physical object that contours to the angled meeting point of a room creating it’s own ambiguous curved space. The corner piece inhabits an area of a room usually devoid of interference yet it’s through intervention that something new exists – a colourful but quiet entity cornered for consideration.

    Although each series has it’s own technical demands, they all live in aesthetic parallel that blur the line between artistic disciplines. There is a determination to continually push the work forward through aesthetic variations, technical refinements and experimenting with new materials. Within this forward trajectory there is an overall vision to create art that is ‘other-worldly’ and in a sense, futuristic. A looking towards an aesthetic not yet seen or fully understood – a desire to go where no one has gone before.

  • Torqued Series 2015

    Torqued Series Statement 2015

    The Torqued Series started in 1998 with the introduction of the ‘Torqued Paintings’, an investigation into the basic principles of painting – line, shape, colour and form through the use of custom built stretcher frames that ‘torque’ the painting surface. This series has continued since, exploring different iterations on the same underlying principles. In recent developments to this series the wooden frame has foregone any right-angled proportions and instead has been constructed with no perpendicular sides to create a new and dynamic shape with resulting torqued surface. The original idea was to take one form and by changing the hanging position of each painting a new form would be visible.

    In 2009 a new development in the Torqued Series emerged by considering the possibilities of removing the physical structure of the paintings (i.e. the stretcher frame), to focus more intently on only surface by maintaining a painted torqued plane that ‘floated off the wall’. To achieve this effect fiberglass panels are used as the painting support. With this new series I was interested in trying to achieve something ‘other-worldly’ and in a sense, futuristic. As the series has progressed the work has also become more individualized, each taking on colourful personalities.

    The Torqued Series, the panels and paintings, live in aesthetic parallel and can be viewed as formal objects that blur the line between painting and sculpture by exploring the basics principles of art; line, shape, colour and form. The works also exist in a space where thoughts and feelings can live; as minimal objects of meditation that reflect our daily emotions.

  • Torqued Series 2014

    Torqued Series Statement 2014

    The Torqued Series started in 1998 with the introduction of the ‘Torqued Paintings’, an investigation into the basic principles of painting – line, shape, colour and form through the use of custom built stretcher frames that ‘torque’ the painting surface. This series has continued since, exploring different iterations on the same underlying principles. In recent developments to this series the wooden frame has foregone any right-angled proportions and instead has been constructed with no perpendicular sides to create a new and dynamic shape with resulting torqued surface. The original idea was to take one form and by changing the hanging position of each painting a new form would be visible.

    In 2009 a new development in the Torqued Series emerged by considering the possibilities of removing the physical structure of the paintings (i.e. the stretcher frame), to focus more intently on only surface by maintaining a painted torqued plane that ‘floated off the wall’. To achieve this effect fiberglass panels are used as the painting support. With this new series I was interested in trying to achieve something ‘other-worldly’ and in a sense, futuristic. As the series has progressed the work has also become more individualized, each taking on colourful personalities.

    The Torqued Series, the panels and paintings, live in aesthetic parallel and can be viewed as formal objects that blur the line between painting and sculpture by exploring the basics principles of art; line, shape, colour and form. The works also exist in a space where thoughts and feelings can live; as minimal objects of meditation that reflect our daily emotions.